This invention pertains to computers and other information processing systems and, more particularly, to an airflow damper for a server blade system.
Server blade systems include a main chassis into which a plurality of xe2x80x9csever bladesxe2x80x9d are slidable inserted into slots in the front of the main chassis. Each server blade includes the majority of the components of a conventional server, minus certain components that are included in the main chassis and are shared among all the server blades in the chassis. These shared components include power supplies, network switches and air moving devices such as fans and blowers.
The air moving devices move air from the front of the main chassis, through the server blades and other components, and exhaust the air out the back of the chassis. Because of the density of the server blades in the chassis, a significant amount of heat is generated by the blades, and the flow of air through each of the server blades is essential. In a densely packed server blade chassis, the interruption of air flow through any one or more of the server blades can result in thermal overload problems in a matter of minutes or even less.
Since the server blades are usually hot plugable, they can be removed from the main chassis without the need to shut down the chassis and all its components. However, removing a blade from the chassis leaves a slot open, thereby changing the flow of air through the system. More particularly, the flow of air through all the server blades in the system is roughly equal, but when one of the blades is removed and its slot is left opened, a disproportionate volume of air flows through the open slot and the air flow through the remaining blades is reduced. Thus, the removal of a blade from its slot creates a xe2x80x9cfluid short circuitxe2x80x9d that results in a reduction of air flow through the server blades, and an increase in air flow through the open slot. To overcome this problem, the invention described below provides an air flow damper in each of the slots that swings into place upon removal of a blade and partially blocks the flow of air through the open slot.
Briefly, the invention is a server blade system for use with first and second server blades, wherein each server blade has at least one air flow opening. The server blade system includes a chassis having first and second slots, wherein a server blade can be inserted into each of said slots. An air moving device is included for moving air through a first server blade installed in the first slot. A bypass damper having first and second positions is positioned in the second slot. The bypass damper obstructs the flow of air through the second slot when the bypass damper is in the second position. The bypass damper moves into the first position when a second server blade is inserted into the second slot, and the bypass damper moves to the second position when the second server blade is removed from the second slot.